Part 2 of my Dragonsteel Nexus accessible cosplay posts. Read Part 1 – Becoming Steris here
Early this month I had the privilege of attending Brandon Sanderson’s Dragonsteel Nexus, an immersive con based on the worlds of the Cosmere from his books. Those stories have touched me deeply and have a rich cast of characters that one can cosplay. And as a disability plus – Sanderson is deliberate about including characters with differences in his works – from autism to depression to characters with limb differences and who use wheelchairs. But I knew for this con I wanted to pull together a Steris cosplay from the Mistborn Era 2 books (see here) and a Navani cosplay from The Stormlight Archives.
These are both women I admire, who are brilliant in their own ways, and whose acts of heroics involve solving complex problems through thorough research, detailed experimentation, and keen observation. They are brave, but also dedicated, intelligent, and know how to apply the skills they possess to help save the day.
Navani Kholin is a complex character. We meet her in The Way of Kings as the lighteyed Alethi dowager Queen and mother of the current King. She is a scholar and artifabrian – one who harnesses the investiture in Stormlight gems to create machine-like devices called fabrials. In Vorin society only women are permitted to read and pursue scholarly careers, and she has dedicated her life to pushing the boundaries of what Stomlight can do. And although she dresses traditionally in a modest Havah with a safehand covering, she subtly pushes the boundaries of societal expectations, breaking down prejudiced systems. Her story arc is fascinating, and I won’t give away too many spoilers, but when choosing someone from the Cosmere to cosplay she was at the top of my list. And since she is a scholar, I thought it would be perfect to create a wheelchair-based cosplay of her sitting at her artifabrian desk.
I started with her outfit. She is often described as wearing red with gold accents with ruby spheres as accessories. Traditional noble women in Vorin society wear a Havah – a modest high-necked dressed that is similar to a Chinese Cheongsam or Qipao but fitted on top and fuller below – with buttons following a line from the jawline to the collarbone. I searched probably harder than I should have for an off-the-rack option for this, but as I usually wear a L/XL and am 6ft tall, most Chinese sized clothes are far too small and short for me, so ordering a dress wasn’t an option. My sewing skills are middling and I was too intimidated to sew an entire dress. 
So, I settled on an extra-long accordion fold deep red skirt and modified a mock turtleneck blouse. I found a wine red embroidered jacquard brocade faux silk fabric from which I constructed a front panel for the blouse, following the angular pattern of a Havah. I added gold trim and golden frog buttons.
I deliberated on how I would handle the safehand covering. In The Stormlight Archives the weird modesty rule that women must follow (because all societies have some such arbitrary rule) is that their left hand must be covered at all times. The upper class lighteyed women have a large pouch built into their dresses covering their left hand, providing them a storage pocket, rendering it difficult to actually use their left hand for anything, while the darkeyed women simply wear a glove. Well, I don’t have a left hand. I considered simply wearing my prosthetic arm (making it appear as an in-world fabrial) but ultimately decided to add a larger safehand covering to my blouse using the same fabric as before.
I stupidly constructed the addition slightly too small to fit on my sewing machine arm, so I ended up having to hand stitch it to the blouse while my half arm was inside it. Not making that mistake again. I also constructed a side bag for my wheelchair out of that fabric trimming it with gold as well.
Then came the fun part of creating the props. In the books the characters communicate across far distances through fabrials called spanreeds – paired pens with a split ruby gemstone that will mimic each other’s movements exactly. So as one person writes, the paired pen copies it precisely wherever the second pen is set up. Navani as a royal and a scholar would have numerous paired spanreeds to communicate with others across the realm. So, I took various sized dowel rods, sanded them to have points on my belt sander, then used hot glue and string to create designs on them.
I then painted them to look like carved wood pens with gold accents, then epoxied pen nibs and rhinestone rubies on either end. I then printed out various Alethi glyphs and women’s script versions of the Windrunner Oaths (Life Before Death, Strength Before Weakness, Journey Before Destination) which I distressed to make soft and scroll-like and dyed with tea to look like linen paper.
I wanted to have a gold pencil cup with the spanreeds and scrolls sitting on the desk of my wheelchair. The problem was that a wheelchair is a moving vehicle and such things would fall off immediately. So, I placed a rubber disk inside the cup with holes the spanreeds could be secured in and then I taped strong rare earth magnets under my wheelchair tray “desk” and on the base of the cup. It wasn’t perfectly secure, but it prevented them from bouncing off as I rolled about.
I also created a Stormlight lamp for the desk. One reads in the novels of Stormlight gem filled lamps and chandeliers and of people placing bowls of Stormlight gems to illuminate their workspace. So again, I wanted to create something that wasn’t too fragile to serve this purpose. I found a small plastic snow globe for craft projects. I painted its trim gold and epoxied gems to it’s outside. I then filled it with plastic gemstones of various shapes, colors, and sizes and ran a string of battery powered LED mini lights through it. I could access the switch and batteries by simply unscrewing the base of the snow globe. I added magnets to it as well to help secure it to the desk.
And so, I created my Stormlight lit workspace for Navani.
Next came more fabrial creations. I knew I wanted to create a Soulcaster – a gem-powered hand-worn device consisting of rings and bracelets connected by chains that holds gemstones and allows one to use the Stormlight within to transform matter into other forms of matter depending on the essence of the gemstone color. While I would love to someday use my silversmithing skills to create a Soulcaster from scratch, I had to make do with a combination of materials for this project. For the majority of the Soulcaster I used brass premade bracelets, ring blanks, and bezels that I epoxied rhinestone gems to.
For a couple of the rings, I used Sterling Silver rings I had built out of wax and then cast into silver and set with a Smokey Quartz and an Emerald. I thought it would be appropriate to use something that I had personally cast in the Soulcaster. It was an arduous process getting the placement and the chains the right length to fit my hand (especially since I only have the one hand to do both the fabricating and the fitting on lol). As I was making it, my teenager walked in and saw it and asked, “What are you Cosplaying as? A cunty Thanos?” Sigh. Kids.
And finally as this was a powered wheelchair-based costume and on Roshar all machines are powered by Stormlight, I knew I had to turn my wheelchair into a fabrial. In the books, Navani is the one who invents a Stormlight powered “wheelchair” for another character who is paralyzed. I knew whatever I created had to easily attach to my chair, not get in the way of its operation, and fit in my luggage for the flight there. I started by creating a fabrial that looked similar to the Soulcaster to wrap around the controller. I crafted a sleeve covering for the joystick with a large red rhinestone on top and connected it to other gems with chains. Then for the back of my wheelchair, I found a large gold toned floral hoop. I added gold decorative tape to cardboard cutouts that I positioned around the hoop creating the “cage” for the fabrial. 
Then I used chain to suspend an oversized ruby Christmas ornament in the center. Near the top I included a compass and a plastic large blue sapphire suspended by chains as well. I found a strand of gemstone sphere battery powered holiday lights that I wrapped around the hoop to create a glowing Stormlight effect. Somehow, I managed to attach all of it to my wheelchair with Velcro, zip ties, and carabiners.
This was a cosplay I created specifically to be for my wheelchair, not just one that would work when I was in a wheelchair. All the crafting was far from perfect, but I love the cosplay because I allowed myself to put time into all the details and fabricate not just an outfit, but a whole scene with props. It is something that I believe Navani would be proud of as her mind delights in puzzling out new creative inventions. This project was part of me embracing my new life – embracing my disabilities and choosing to create from within that space. Crafting this cosplay was a meditative act helping me on my journey to acceptance of who I am and although it was a crazy amount of work, I am so happy I committed to putting the time into it. Now I just hope I can find a way to attend Dragonsteel Nexus again so I can wear it again.
